MIDDLEBURG – The Snyder County Commissioners have passed their budget for 2016, which includes a 2-mill tax increase. Snyder County Commissioner Joe Kantz said, “The good news in all of this is we were at a tentative adopted budget of 4-mills difference, which equated to just $2-million. As we finished up the budget today for final approval, we were about $871,000 short, which caused us to increase the taxes by 2-mills.”
The budget is $18.2-million with anticipated property tax revenues of $9.5-million. Kantz took time to thank the department heads for their hard work, “When you come into office, you have to set the tone for how you want to manage the finances of that organization, whether it’s a county, a state, federal government, what have you. Eight years ago, when we came into this office, we set the tone. This is how we are going to do business. If you don’t need it, you don’t buy it. If you can do without it, you do without it. If you absolutely have to have it, we understand that. Tell us why you have to have it and we will go along with it if it makes sense.”
He said despite a $1.2-million increase in Children and Youth expenses and not having $1.5-million from the state, that was owed to them, they were still able to pay all of the bills that were due through the end of the year. This is the first time Snyder County has raised taxes in several years. (Ali Stevens)
